Language

Readers' Services

The Readers’ Services Department, the largest of the Library’s departments, serves the students and staff of the College, along with visiting researchers and the general public, in their quest to use the Library’s resources and services.

Counter Services staff and the Stacks team in the Department manage the various reading rooms in the Library (Berkeley, Lecky, Ussher (BLU) Libraries, the Hamilton Science and Engineering Library and the John Stearne Medical Library), including their facilities and collections. Staff in these areas are responsible for the coordination of reading room services such as, the borrowing and renewing of materials, the processing of stacks requests in response to readers’ requests, and the shelving and sorting of books and journals.

The Duty Librarian Service is an enquiry or reference desk service operated by a team of librarians in the Readers’ Services Department. The main functions include:

Reference assistance

Guidance on the use of information resources (catalogues, databases, and electronic journals)

Negotiating electronic resource licence agreement with providers and publishers on behalf of the College community

Maintaining off campus access to the resources

Defining and delivering the Library’s web presence and ensuring the web is exploited as key service channel

The team work closely with staff in the Collection Management Department of the Library to exploit electronic resources through the implementation and maintenance of discovery platforms and finding tools.